Magical Christmas
by Zerectica
Summary: Chuck gives Sarah a Christmas she'll never forget. One-shot.


_**A/N: This is the story I wrote for the second Who Are You Challenge last year, and since it's a Christmas story, I'm posting it now.**_

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><p>Chuck Bartowski had a secret, a secret he had carried with him his whole life. It was a secret so carefully guarded that not even his girlfriend, his super-spy girlfriend, had any knowledge that he even had a secret, let alone one so huge. It was such a big secret that no one outside Chuck's immediate family knew about it. Even as a child Chuck knew how confidential the secret was and never even told his lifelong best friend Morgan, with whom he shared practically everything.<p>

Chuck had kept it hidden his entire life, but now he was considering sharing his most secret of secrets with someone. He was thinking of telling his girlfriend, Sarah. She was a spy, so he knew she could keep a secret. And if he planned to marry her, which he did, the secret was something he would have to share with her before they got married. He just hoped his secret wouldn't make Sarah change her mind about wanting to marry him.

For days Chuck carefully thought about the secret he'd held since birth and what it would mean to divulge the highly confidential information to someone else. Growing up his father had told him he would only ever be able to tell this secret to one person in his life, the girl he chose to spend his life with. As a child, he never thought he would share his secret with a girl. But now, with Sarah, he could finally see himself letting the secret out to a member of the female population. He knew that she was the woman he wanted to make his wife and thus, the one with which he would share his biggest secret.

Now that he had decided to let Sarah in on his lifelong secret, Chuck needed to figure out how to tell her. His secret wasn't one that could just be blurted out. It required careful planning in order to assure that things went smoothly. Again, Chuck spent days carefully contemplating how he would tell Sarah what he needed to tell her. When he finally came up with an answer he worked quickly to put his plan into motion before he freaked out and called the whole thing off.

Throughout the day Chuck made all the final preparations for his plan and did his best to plan out what he would say. When his phone sounds an alert that night Chuck takes a deep calming breath to gather his nerves and arouses Sarah from her slumber. "What is it Chuck? Are you okay? Is something wrong?" she asks, still half asleep.

"Sarah, you know I love you right?"

"Of course I know that you love me... and I love you," Sarah responded cautiously, unsure where this was going.

"Well, there's something I need to tell you. A secret I've never told anyone before."

"Okay, can we talk about it tomorrow?" Sarah asks, already shutting her eyes to go back to sleep.

"No, I have to tell you tonight."

"Well, okay," Sarah said, sitting up in bed after hearing the resolve in his voice. "What is it?"

"Get dressed first. I can't tell you here."

"Chuck, it's almost 3:00 in the morning. Why can't you just tell me now?"

"Please Sarah, just trust me. I can't tell you here."

Reluctantly, Sarah accepted Chuck's bizarre request because, well, he was the man she loved. And being in love sometimes meant that you had to do some strange things for that person, things that maybe you didn't understand. And it did seem important to him, so despite how crazy it sounded, she was willing to go along with him.

Once they were dressed they headed out the door, navigating their way through the dark to Sarah's car. But since she had no clue where Chuck was taking her, Sarah had to, even more reluctantly than agreeing to this journey in the first place, hand over the keys to her precious car.

"Chuck, where are we going?" Sarah asked after they had been driving through the empty streets for some time. "And what is it that you have to tell me? This secret?"

"Not yet."

By now Sarah was starting to grow concerned. What kind of secret could Chuck have that would require them to drive off to some unknown location in the middle of the night, just so he could tell her? This was Chuck Bartowski, by far the kindest, most caring man she'd ever met. What could he possibly have to tell her that would necessitate such extreme measures?

After a long, fretful drive, Chuck finally stopped the car. In the dark, it took Sarah a few moments to figure out where they were. But once she recognized it, memories of the the last time they were here flooded her mind. She and Chuck had almost blown up in Chuck's childhood home when Volkoff planted explosives in Orion's secret lair.

"Chuck, why are we here?"

"It has to be somewhere isolated and this is the only place they know to come."

"They? What are you talking about Chuck? Who's 'they'?"

"Come on. I'll show you," Chuck said taking her hand and leading her away from the car and through the darkness.

When they reached what would have been the far corner of the backyard, before the home that once stood their blew up, an excited Chuck and a thoroughly confused Sarah came upon a third figure lurking in the dark. When they were a couple feet away Chuck dropped Sarah's hand and took the final few steps toward the figure alone. He then introduced the large figure to the very confused spy. "Sarah, this is Justice."

"Justice?" Sarah asks with amusement.

"Yeah, you know, like Justice League."

"Justice," Chuck said, turning his attention toward the figure."This is my girlfriend, Sarah."

"So this is your big secret?" Sarah questions with a perplexed expression, looking at the animal Chuck had led them toward. "You have a 'pet' deer."

"Reindeer, actually. And he's not exactly a pet. Well he is, but... well, I'll just show you."

"Chuck, what are you doing?" Sarah asked as he climbed onto the animal's back.

"Trust me, Sarah," Chuck replied as he held his hand out to her.

"We're going on a 'pony' ride, with a reindeer, in the middle of the night?"

"Something like that. Now come on."

Completely bewildered, Sarah stepped up to the animal and reluctantly settled just behind her boyfriend on the reindeer's back, leaning against him and wrapping her arms around his waist. Chuck then took the reindeer's reins and they began moving.

The reindeer started walking at a leisurely pace, but soon he started to run. Thinking the animal had been spooked by something, Sarah lifted her head from Chuck's shoulder and tried searching the dark surroundings looking for whatever may have frightened Justice, as Chuck called him.

Chuck simply reached back and brought Sarah's head back to his shoulders as he said, "It's okay."

Then something which truly shocked Sarah started to happen. The reindeer's feet left the ground as he began to run through the open air. Chuck, Sarah and Justice rose further and further from the ground until they reached the sky.

They were flying. They were actually flying through the air under the power of a reindeer. Sarah couldn't believe it. She'd never seen anything like it. But judging from Chuck's expression, this wasn't a new or surprising experience to him. He acted as if flying reindeer were as normal as a dog chasing its tail or a cat landing on its feet when descending from great heights.

As the world whizzed by below, Sarah's mind reeled with disbelief. Her mind was so consumed with utter bewilderment, that the journey passed while she remained unaware. It took Chuck moving next to her for her to realize they were back on the ground.

Sarah looked around at her surroundings as she shivered, trying to figure out where they were. Everywhere she looked she saw snow, snow and more snow. Off in the distance, through the heavily falling snow, she could faintly see a cabin, completely decked out with Christmas lights. Everything surrounding the cabin sported a dazzling array of colored lights as well.

Sarah had never seen so many Christmas lights in her life. "Wow!" she breathed, before turning to Chuck and asking, "Chuck, what just happened? Where are we?"

"We just flew by reindeer to a place covered in snow and more Christmas lights than Town Square. Where do you _think_ we are?"

"You don't seriously mean we're _actually_ at the North Pole, do you?"

"Of course I do. Where else do you think we'd be?"

"Chuck, what is this about? What's going on?"

"It's cold out here. Let's go inside," Chuck replied, as he slipped off Justice's back and onto the snowy ground. After giving the reindeer's nose a few strokes followed by some instructions, he extended his hand to Sarah. "I'll explain it to you there."

Chuck and Sarah walked arm-in-arm toward the brightly lit cabin through the crisp night air and the freezing snow, trying to keep each other warm. When they reached the cabin and the door closed behind them, they felt the toasty air swirl around them, as if welcoming them with a warm hug. While the heat flowing through the Christmas cabin started to bring Chuck and Sarah's skin back to comfortable temperatures, they brushed the un-melted snow from their clothes and hair.

Now out of the cold and warming up, Chuck was ready to explain things to Sarah. He was ready to tell her his deepest secret. "Sarah, I'm not Chuck Bartowski. Well, I am, but... I... my family... Well, it's hard to explain. Do you know the story of Santa Claus?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, that''s basically who I... we..., my family is."

"Wait, you're saying that you're Santa Claus?" Sarah asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well... yeah... pretty much," Chuck answered nervously.

"But he's a round old man with a long, white beard, and you're... well, you're not. How do you explain that?"

"Well it all started with my great, great, great, great... Well, I don't know exactly, but my very great grandfather, who _was_ a round old man with a long, white beard. One year, while out delivering presents he was spotted and the legend of Santa Claus was born. And since my really great grandfather's image was associated with Santa, that's still the image people have of him today."

"Chuck, this is all really hard to believe."

"I know. But it's true and I just hope this doesn't change the way you feel about me. I mean, it is a very shocking revelation, but I really do love you and I hope that you'll be okay with this."

For a long time Sarah was silent, making Chuck quite nervous. "What about the elves?" she finally asked ending the the silence that had racked Chuck's nerves.

It wasn't what he expected her to say, but he wasn't fazed by the question and provided an immediate response. "You mean Santa's helpers? They're right in there," Chuck said pointing to an open room just in front of them.

"Them? But they're not..."

"Short, with pointy ears?" Chuck cut in, seemingly reading Sarah's mind.

"Yeah." Sarah answered looking at the people who appeared no different than Chuck or herself.

"Yeah, I'm not really sure where the myth about Santa's helpers being short with pointy ears came from."

Chuck continued to explain the whole Santa thing to Sarah as he gave her a tour of the grounds of the North Pole. He showed her the workshop, the list indicating whether someone was naughty or nice, the stables with the seven reindeer she had yet to meet, the sleigh used for delivering presents all around the world, finally concluding the tour in a room in which the walls were covered with pictures.

"And this is the 'Hall of Santas.' I know it's not actually a hall, but that's what it's called. I'm not really sure why. The pictures on the walls are portraits of all the past Santas. Ending here with my father."

"Where is your picture Chuck?"

"I don't have one yet. This is going to be my first year. I'm really starting to freak out. I don't know if I can do it."

"Of course you can Chuck."

"I just really wasn't expecting to take over so soon. But when my father died earlier this year, the duty to be Santa fell to me. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. I haven't really had any training. I only tagged along with my father a couple times when I was a kid."

"I know you'll do great, Chuck. You'll be a wonderful Santa," Sarah replied reassuringly, completely shocked by what she was saying. She couldn't believe she was actually having a conversation about Santa as though he were a real person with her boyfriend, who claimed to be the mythical man himself.

"Sarah, will you come with me and help?"

"You mean deliver presents with you? I don't know Chuck," Sarah answered still not believing the conversation she was having.

"You'll love it Sarah. The sleigh is incredible. It's a lot different than riding on the back of a reindeer. The flight is a lot smoother. It feels like you're skating across the air. The view is amazing and you and I can spend the whole night snuggled up next to each other."

"I really don't know Chuck. I mean this is all very unbelievable and I don't know anything about this."

"Please Sarah," Chuck asked, giving her that look that she found nearly irresistible. "It'd really help me. I don't think I would be so nervous if you were with me and I just like spending time with you."

Despite the snowy conditions outside, Sarah's heart melted and she knew she couldn't say no to the sweet, wonderful man she loved, who wanted to share something very special to him with her. As a spy, sharing something special and personal was extremely rare and when she had the opportunity to give or receive something like that, she found it hard not to do so, especially when Chuck was involved. So just like he had become her partner in the spy business, she would become his partner in the Santa business, at least for tonight.

Though it was still December 23 back home in California, Christmas Eve was fast approaching on the other side of the world, and so it was time for Chuck and his beautiful assistant to start making the final preparations for present delivery. Chuck had remained fairly calm up until then, but now he was starting to freak out and since he was the only one who knew what to do, that was a _very_ bad thing.

Sarah needed to get Chuck's attention and calm him down and there was only one way she could think of doing that. Sarah grabbed Chuck's arm and spun him around to face her. She then took possession of his face and kissed him long and hard. When Sarah finally let go of his lips, Chuck was relaxed and happy. Now that Sarah had his attention, she had to get him to focus on his work, his mission.

"Chuck, you've seen your father do this before. Now, what's the first thing you're supposed to do?"

No longer freaking out, Chuck was able to sort through his memories to when he would watch his father get everything ready for making present deliveries. "We have to get the reindeer hooked up to the sleigh," Chuck answered.

"Okay. Well, let's go do that now then."

Chuck and Sarah headed out to the stables where the reindeer were kept and began to get them ready to go. Sarah had difficulties trying to figure out how to put the red and green reins, dotted with little golden jingle bells on the reindeer, so Chuck had to help her. And Sarah found that even though she clearly had no idea what she was doing, the reindeer were quite friendly. One of them, which Chuck said was called Cocoa, nuzzled her neck while she was struggling with the reins, making her smile. Sarah didn't know how Chuck could tell them apart. They all looked just about the same to her, but Chuck assured her that once she got to know them better, she would be able to tell them apart too.

It seemed as though Chuck needed to simply get started with things in order to fall into the right mindset, because as soon as he started getting the reindeer ready to go, Chuck calmly and smoothly sailed through the rest of the tasks he needed to complete. He checked the sleigh and its equipment to make sure everything was in working order, he got the list, the presents and the red velvet sack. Finally, he went to get his father's suit.

Once he had everything on, Chuck took a long-sleeved, red velvet dress with white fuzzy trim along the neckline, sleeves and hem to Sarah. He also brought her a pair of black boots with a heel, red gloves, stockings and a Santa hat. "Here Sarah, put this on," Chuck said handing over the items.

"Chuck, just because I agreed to help, doesn't mean I agreed to wear a Santa, or Mrs. Claus suit."

"It's to keep you warm, Sarah. It gets pretty cold up there and we'll be traveling all night, all around the world. Some of those places will be pretty cold. You'll freeze to death without the proper clothing."

Seeing Chuck's logic and knowing he had experience with this, where she had none, Sarah took the items and went to go change. When she came back a few minutes later, Chuck couldn't stop the smile that grew on his face.

"What?" Sarah asked when she saw the way he was grinning at her.

"You just look so cute. You make a great Mrs. Santa," Chuck said before taking Sarah in his arms and kissing her.

Amused by Chuck's goofy grin, Sarah just smiled and kissed his cheek.

Now that Chuck and Sarah were dressed in the warm Santa-style suits, they were ready to go. Chuck stepped into the sleigh first, then extended his hand to Sarah to help her in as well. Once they were comfortably settled, Chuck took a deep breath to calm his nerves and off they went.

The reindeer began walking and the sleigh carrying Chuck, Sarah and the gifts, started to glide across the snow. Soon the feet of the leading reindeer left the ground, followed by each reindeer behind in succession. When the feet of the last reindeer lifted into the air, the sleigh itself started to leave the snowy surface below. First year Santa, Chuck and Sarah, who was new to the secret, ascended higher and higher into the heavens, until it seemed as though they could just reach out and touch the twinkling stars.

As they flew, Sarah watched the world pass by below. She was amazed by what she saw. Everything was so beautiful. "You were right Chuck. I've been on more planes than I can remember, but the feeling and experience of flying with you in Santa's sleigh is unbelievable."

"So are you glad you agreed to come with me now?"

Sarah's response was to simply move closer to Chuck and nod her head. Chuck in turn wrapped his arm around her shoulder, which prompted Sarah to lean against him and smile contentedly.

"We're here," Chuck announced a few minutes later as the reindeer, sleigh and all, gracefully landed back on the ground. "Our first stop."

"If this is our first stop, why aren't we on the roof? Aren't you supposed to go down the chimney or something?"

"No, that's like the thing with the elves being short and pointy-eared, it's a complete myth. Not all houses have chimneys. They're also small and dirty. Not to mention dangerous. Falling from that height could easily cause injury, plus you never know when there might be a fire below," Chuck explained.

"So how does this work?"

"We use the front door. All houses have one of those."

"Don't people usually lock their doors? How do you plan to get in?"

"Ah, with this," Chuck said producing an ornate-looking golden key from his pocket. "This key will open any door."

"That would really come in handy on spy missions," Sarah commented offhandedly, as she examined the beautiful key Chuck had just handed her. "Not that my lock-picking skills aren't proficient."

"No Santa would ever use this key for anything other than professional business. Besides, it only works on Christmas Eve."

"I know you wouldn't," Sarah answered sincerely, as she returned the key to Chuck and lightly kissed the corner of his mouth.

Chuck smiled and hopped out of the sleigh with the velvet present bag and signaled for Sarah to follow him. With the velvet sack slung over his shoulder, Chuck used the special key to open the door to the first house on the list. Chuck and Sarah then silently slipped through the door, their spy training proving to be an asset.

As the two approached the large Christmas tree in the main room of the house, it lit up, producing a beautiful glow on the tree and throughout the room. Noticing Sarah's stunned reaction, Chuck whispered, "It's amazing isn't it? That was always my favorite part as kid. I loved watching the tree light up when we came near."

After Chuck and Sarah got the presents for the little girl and boy who lived in this house nestled under the tree alongside the gifts the parents had purchased, they began to head back to the sleigh to go onto their next stop. When they walked away, the lights of the tree dimmed and turned back off.

When Chuck and Sarah were again cozied up together in the sleigh, the reindeer took to the skies one more. All through the night and all around the world they went, and throughout the entire journey, Sarah remained in awe. She had never experienced anything even remotely similar. Tonight was by far the most incredible experience of her life. It was also the most unbelievable. She had seen so many impossible things. Flying reindeer. The North Pole and Santa's workshop. Magical keys that would open any door. Trees that lit up of their own free will. A velvet sack capable of holding presents for every child on Earth, and the way they seemed to be able to travel around the world in only one night.

Once their work was done and the sleigh again touched the snowy ground at the North Pole, Chuck and Sarah set about putting the sleigh away and unhitching the reindeer. As they did so, Sarah spoke. "Chuck. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For tonight. For making me believe in Christmas."

Beaming, Chuck took Sarah by the hand and pulled her in for a kiss. When he broke away, leaving his hands cupped around her face, he whispered, "You're welcome."

They'd had a lot of fun, but after delivering countless presents around the world, Chuck and Sarah were exhausted. They wanted nothing more than to collapse on the nearest bed with fluffy pillows, soft cotton sheets and a warm, cozy blanket.

The sound of an alarm clock chirping nearby pulls Chuck and Sarah from their slumber. Chuck is the first to speak when he says, "Good morning, Sarah."

Sarah responds, but she doesn't say good morning. Instead she answers with, "Chuck, I had the strangest dream..."

"Sarah..." Chuck interrupts before she can finish.

Noticing her surroundings, Sarah sees a big, beautiful Christmas tree, all aglow with lights and sparkles, complete with shiny packages nestled underneath. There's a roaring fireplace, making the room feel warm and cozy. It's mantle is topped with garland and colorful lights and two stockings filled with goodies hung at either end. Everywhere she looks she sees Christmas, even outside, where a thick blanket of pure white snow covers the ground.

"It wasn't a dream was it?" Sarah replies after looking around the room.

"No it wasn't."

"So you really are...? We really did...?"

"I am and we really did," Chuck answers with a smile. His smile grows brighter when he presses a soft, sweet kiss into her lips. "Merry Christmas, Sarah."

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><p><em><strong>AN: I hope you enjoyed the story and Merry Christmas.**_


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